1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and method for accessing an external memory. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device and method for enabling security preservation of an external memory installed in a terminal and easy access to the external memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advances in mobile communication technology, mobile terminals now selling in the market include additional functions such as an MP3 player, a camera, and a video player in addition to a communication function. Due to the increased number of functions, portable terminals require a high capacity memory that can store a large amount of data such as music files, image files taken by a camera, moving pictures and the like. However, providing sufficient memory space for data generated by the additional functions is difficult. Sufficient memory space is difficult to provide because an internal memory unit for the terminal is expensive. Moreover, the application programs necessary for operating the terminal already occupy a large amount of the memory capacity. In order to address the problem of memory shortage, an external memory slot for utilizing an external memory is provided in the terminal to expand the memory capacity.
By installing the external memory in the external memory slot of the terminal, the memory capacity of the terminal is expanded by the memory capacity of the external memory. Also, exchange of data between terminals having a compatible external memory slot becomes more convenient by simply exchanging the external memory between the terminals. If the external memory is not password protected, the external memory may be freely used in any terminal having a compatible external memory slot. That is, the external memory may be used in any terminal supporting the external memory and a user of a terminal in which the external memory is installed can read and write data to and from the external memory. Therefore, data security of the external memory is very low.
One proposal to address the lack of data security is found in Korean Patent Publication No. 1997-29173. There, it is disclosed that usage of an external memory could be regulated by setting a password of the external memory. However, a user must input the password each time the external memory is installed in the terminal because the password is stored in the external memory. Accordingly, if the password is lost, the external memory must be reformatted for reuse and thereby all the data in the external memory would be deleted.